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CMU Engineering Students Present Inventions

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Imagine chilling a drink without ice or using a snowboard that comes in two pieces.

Those are just two of the innovations designed by Carnegie Mellon University engineering seniors who showed off their inventions Monday.

Among the creations – a foldable snowboard. Typically, you have to use a roof rack on your car to carry a board which increases a car’s fuel consumption. This invention would eliminate that and make transport less of a hassle altogether.

“It’s easier to carry, on the mountain you can it in one hand each, so it would be lighter in each hand,” Erik Ringvold, a senior, said.

Another invention – a quiet door latch. Team members say with a few adjustments, they could actually see this being sold in stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s.

“We saw that people were having trouble closing doors quietly when they come home at night, they don’t want to wake up their loved ones,” Won Shim said.

All of the teams are made up of seniors, who have studied mechanical engineering for the past four years.

They started these projects in January with brainstorming. Once they came up with the ideas, they took off designing and creating.

It’s experience that will pay off after graduation.

“They’ve got a good education, they are creative, they are young and they can think about possibilities that none of us has seen before and then try to realize those,” CMU Associate Professor Jeremy Michalek said.